Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh has proposed postponement of D8 Summit, which was scheduled to take place in Dhaka at the end of May.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen wrote a letter to his Turkish counterpart, (where Turkey is the current Chair of D-8) in this regard.
Meanwhile, the D-8 Health and Social Protection Programme (D-8 HSP), based in Abuja Nigeria, has decided to convene a virtual working meeting of the focal persons of the D-8 HSP on April 16.
Realising the need for cooperation and solidarity of this economic bloc of geographically dispersed eight countries to fight this pandemic, the meeting of the focal persons is expected to come up with mechanisms to lessen the hardship through sharing best practices and resources.
It is also anticipated that the meeting will also find means to share a number of developed and home-grown health innovation ecosystems and exchanges within or between D-8 countries, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Monday.
The D-8 nations (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey) may also agree on a research methodology to measure the health and socioeconomic impact of the pandemic.
Earlier, in line with Prime Minister’s directive to engage at regional and global platforms to explore collective solutions on the Covid-19 crisis, Bangladesh took the lead to organise such a meeting of D-8 HSP.
Foreign Minister Momen wrote a letter to his Turkish counterpart to explore options how they could activate or utilise the D-8 HSP window to support each other during this crisis.
Bangladesh Delegation will be led by officials from the DG Health Services and allied institutions who are part of the Covid-19 response team.
The D-8 HSP Virtual Meeting will be supported by Global Health experts from observer and partner organisations like Chatham House, World Health Organization, ILO, IsDB, Global Women Leaders in Health and CHESTRAD International.
Dr Momen proposed that Bangladesh and Turkey can take joint or collaborative initiatives, engaging the D8 Secretariat and other appropriate entities like UNCTAD/UNIDO, to explore ways and means for concerted efforts to restore confidence and devise strategies regarding potential negative consequences of the Covid-19 crisis on overall economy, growth and jobs of the respective member countries.
